Ten men fathered Europe

An international team of geneticists has found that virtually all European men are descended from 10 genetic forefathers who migrated to Europe from Central Asia and the Middle East.

In the journalScience, the team report that the genetic forefathers apparently came to Europe in three successive waves, tens of thousands of years ago.

The researchers, led by Dr Ornella Semino of Pavia University in Italy, studied the Y chromosomes of more than one thousand men across Europe and the Middle East concluding that ten lineages account for about 95 percent of the 1,007 European Y chromosomes studied.

They identified three types of distinct geography and culture. "The first comprises Basques and Western Europeans, the second Middle Eastern and the third Eastern European populations from Croatia, Ukraine, Hungary and Poland."

Although Basques in Spain, Sardinians in Italy and Saami people in Finland have distinct cultures, their genes look like those of other Europeans, the researchers said.

The oldest male lineage found dates back to the Old Stone Age or Paleolithic period, which ended 15,000 years ago. It's genetic variation or mutation is called M173 and is found in half the men in the study.

After examining the distribution of the genetic variation and mapping its subtypes, the researchers suggest that "M173 is an ancient Eurasiatic marker that was brought in, or arose in the group of Homo sapiens (modern humans) who entered Europe and diffused from east to west about 40,000 to 35,000 years ago, spreading the Aurignac culture."

"This culture appeared almost simultaneously in Siberia, from which some groups eventually migrated to the Americas."

Some of the genetic variations tie in with theories that groups became isolated during the last Ice Age, which ended 13,000 years ago, the researchers said.

Another marker, called M170, dates to about 22,000 years ago and is associated with the Gravettian culture. This group was known for its Venus figurines, shell jewelery and for using mammoth bones to build homes.

The third group - about 20 percent of the men - seem to date from more recent times, having come into Europe between 15,000 and 20,000 years ago.

These men were probably the first Neolithic farmers who migrated from the Fertile Crescent in the Middle East and, as might be expected, their genes are found most frequently along the Mediterranean.